Last October, SpaceX made history by capturing his reusable rocket StarshipSuper heavy, straight into flight. He did it with the help of some robotic weapons located in the tower Mechazilla. Some might think it’s luck. One of those events that you can only get once. But Elon Musk’s company did it again during Starship’s latest test flight just hours ago. The problem is that not everything succeeded since the test ended upper stage explosion.
All this also happened a few hours after Blue Origin managed to put a satellite into orbit, pushed by its rocket New Glenn on the first test flight. This is a milestone that even SpaceX did not achieve at the time. This event made the race between both competing companies even more even, although their CEOs, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, They communicated very cordially: the first congratulated, the second wished good luck in testing the new starship.
SpaceX engineers have made many improvements to both the Starship and the launch tower since the last attempt. However, this was not enough for absolute success. Despite this, Elon Musk has already stated that if all goes well, he will conduct many more tests in 2025 to polish your results.
Success and failure in the latest Starship test
Mechazilla’s robotic arms, colloquially called chopsticks, are designed to catch the rocket on its way back. Super Heavy as soon as you free the starship. This is a revolution in rocket recyclingbecause not only can you use the same shuttle again. You also won’t have to drag it out of the ocean like you usually do. Blue Origin itself already tried this yesterday on its New Glenn. In the Atlantic, a barge was being prepared to receive the return landing of the first stage of the rocket, but this was incorrect and the ship ended up at sea.
All this can be avoided by using Mechazilla sticks. What was achieved in October seemed almost impossible to repeat, but SpaceX has done it again. Joy flooded the company control area, but this joy was soon overshadowed when contact with the upper phase has been lost. After what seemed like an eternity of searching, it was discovered that he had suffered from “unscheduled quick disassembly”. Come on, he exploded.
The present and future of SpaceX
This time the launch vehicle was slightly higher, with 123 meters high. Improvements have also been made to launch tower hardware to improve the accuracy of the sticks. In addition, some sensors damaged during the last test were repaired. At the same time, the restoration of the rocket went flawlessly.
Now we have to study reasons for the explosion to avoid them for the next test. Elon Musk has repeatedly insisted that SpaceX’s core strategy is based on rehearse a lot. Therefore, if in 2024 there were only 4 test launches, then in 2025 permission to conduct 25. Under normal circumstances, getting the green light for so many attempts would not be easy, but the great friendship that unites Elon Musk with the new US President Donald Trumpperhaps it will level the ground for you.
SpaceX vs Blue Origin
SpaceX already carries out orbital flights on its Falcon. Until now, Blue Origin has limited itself suborbital flights, but the success of New Glenn’s first trial shows that they are capable of competing with Elon Musk’s company.
However, he is confident that SpaceX’s future will be dominated by Starship, not Falcon rockets and Dragon capsules. That’s why 2025 will be filled with so many challenges. Until everything goes according to plan and nothing explodes. The consequences for the surrounding ecosystem could be dire, but that doesn’t seem to matter to SpaceX’s CEO or new hires. rulers of the United States.
Source: Hiper Textual
